President visits with state lawmakers, donors in Phoenix

President Cheng

President Rita Cheng made the most of a 48-hour-visit in Phoenix this week, engaging in one-on-one discussions ­with Gov. Doug Ducey and several Arizona representatives and senators.

It was Cheng’s first meeting with the governor, who posted a photo and thanked her via Twitter for a productive meeting.

Cheng spoke to the House of Representatives Government and Higher Education Committee, chaired by Rep. Bob Thorpe, on the university’s strategic goals, the metrics established to measure NAU’s outcomes and opportunities to connect those outcomes to state funding appropriations. Cheng also discussed how the relationship between the university and the state is defined and the regulatory reform agenda proposed by the Arizona Board of Regents and university presidents. Eileen Klein, ABOR president, Michael Crow, Arizona State University president, and Ann Weaver Hart, University of Arizona president, also spoke during the visit with the committee.

Cheng welcomed to the Phoenix Biomedical Campus the board of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, a nonprofit that last year gifted $1.5 million to expand NAU’s physician assistant program in downtown Phoenix.